Reference Festival Berlin presents first-ever Animal Crossing fashion show

As people around the world were stuck at home during lockdown, they took
up gaming to cure their boredom. But instead of shooter or sports games, a
different type of game has caught the interest of many: Nintendo’s Animal
Crossing.

The video game is currently experiencing its nostalgia-driven comeback,
since its initial debut launch almost 20 years ago. The newest edition,
‘New Horizons’, celebrated its release at the end of March and has since
sold 11.7 million copies.

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Animal Crossing allows players to create their own avatar, which they
can dress as they please. While common styling options in video games are
usually pre-made, Animal Crossing allows the user to digitize their own
clothes or create their personal dream look, which has sparked a separate
fashion community in itself. Though players could already become designers
in Animal Crossing’s past editions, ‘New Leaf’ and ‘Happy Home Designer’,
‘New Horizons’ enables “designs to be applied to even more items than
before,” said a Nintendo Germany spokeswoman at the request of
FashionUnited.

Well-styled

Instagram profiles, such as Nook Street Market or
animalcrossingfashionarchive, introduce fashion week looks into the video
game and make them available to the community. This way, everyone can
virtually shine in their favorite clothes, whether this be by wearing Dirk
Bikkembergs or Prada.

Photographer Kara Chung, who started the animalcrossingfashionarchive
account, already collaborated with Maison Valentino at the end of April and
has introduced Marc Jacobs pieces from the spring/summer and early autumn
2020 collections into the game.

Pictures: Maison Valentino SS20 by Kara Chung

“Where does fashion go after the lockdown? Right now people are
connecting by taking pictures of themselves in their homes. I can’t help
seeing similarities with this video game: everyone has become an
image-maker, stylist and model rolled into one,” Chung wrote in an
Instagram post via animalcrossingfashionarchives.

New Horizons: first-ever fashion show

Her current collaboration even takes one further step to present the
first worldwide Animal Crossing fashion show, with looks by Belenciaga,
GmbH, Bottega Veneta and many other brands.

Pictures: overview of looks included in the fashion show

“We’re recreating our Ssense wishlists. We’re cosplaying as
ourselves, with room to play. We’re living in a big remix of
reality, and this game is proof that creativity transcends isolation. The
identity and the pure joy that comes with the game’s honest expression is
something to share,” Chung added.

For the second part of the Reference Festival, an artistic festival of
the PR agency Reference Studios, Chung worked with stylist and 032c fashion
director Marc Goehring. While Chung took charge of videography and the
digitalization of outfits, Goehring worked on the styling. Michel Gaubert,
who also provides soundtracks for physical fashion shows such as Dior or
Sacai, was responsible for the sound direction.

Pictures: photoshoot for Farfetch (left) and for Shetty Karthik
(right)

“We met through a mutual friend, curator Evan Garza, who had contacted
us both for an Animal Crossing project in the Art Forum. Right after, we
talked on the phone and figured it would be a fun way to work together,”
Chung and Goehring told Vogue.

Goehring further explained that the first step of collaboration does not
differ much from a usual shooting. He browsed through his favorite
collections of the current season and chose the looks to include. “You
really have to think about what specifics you can remove and what you
pixelate in order to create a specific look that everyone knows and
recognizes,” Goehring continued.

Marc Goehring styled by Kara Chung

The result can be seen in a little over three minute long video of a
fashion show featuring an audience of Animal Crossing characters. But see
for yourself…